200 
.  R7 
1923 


Cibrarp  of  €be  'theological  ^eroinarp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


PRESENTED  BY 


The  Estate  of 

Harold  McAfee  Robinson,  D.D. 

BV  200  . R7  1923  ] 

Robinson,  Harold  McAfee, 

1881- 

How  to  conduct  family 


— 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/howtoconductfamiOOrobi 


HOW  TO  CO 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


BY 


HAROLD  McA.  ROBINSON 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION 
AND  SABBATH  SCHOOL  WORK 

1923 


Copyright,  1923 
By  F.  M.  Braselman 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Foreword .  5 

Chapter  I.  Why  Worship  God  by  Families? .  7 

Chapter  II.  The  Acts  and  Methods  of  Family 
Worship . . .  11 

Chapter  III.  The  Use  of  Music  in  Family  Worship  14 

Chapter  IY.  The  Use  of  Scripture  in  Family 
Worship .  20 

Chapter  V.  The  Use  of  Prayer  in  Family  Worship  28 


FOREWORD 


If  this  little  book  helps  one  family  to  worship 
God  as  a  family,  I  shall  be  more  than  content. 
For  heredity,  environment,  and  education  all 
combine  to  cast  the  light  or  the  shadow  of  a 
family  down  the  succeeding  generations.  There 
is  no  more  priceless  possession  than  a  godly 
heritage,  and  there  is  no  greater  service  that  a 
family  can  render  to  God  than  the  transmission 
of  that  heritage  to  the  next  generation. 
Family  worship  of  the  God  and  Father  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  is  the  life 
of  a  Christian  family. 


H.  McA.  R. 


Chapter  I 


WHY  WORSHIP  GOD  BY  FAMILIES  ? 

What  is  worship? 

Dr.  Richard  S.  Storrs  once  wrote,  “In  church,  cot¬ 
tage,  college,  camp,  on  sea  or  land,  around  the  world, 
wherever  is  adoring  affection  and  trust  toward  Him  on 
high,  expressed  by  the  aspiring  spirit,  there  is  true 
worship.”  This  description  of  worship  will  help  us  to 
understand  what  Christian  worship  is. 

There  are  two  parties  to  Christian  worship :  first,  the 
God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
toward  whom  the  worship  is  directed;  and  second,  the 
person  or  persons  who  aspire  toward  God,  directing 
their  worship  toward  him  as  its  object. 

Worship  may  be  either  personal  and  private — one 
person  aspiring  toward  God.  Or  worship  may  be  social 
and  public — a  group  or  company  of  persons,  for  ex¬ 
ample,  a  family  or  a  congregation,  together  aspiring 
toward  God. 

Again,  worship  may  be  a  feeling  of  “adoring  affection 
and  trust  toward  Him  on  high,”  or  it  may  be  an  act  or 
acts  through  which  that  feeling  finds  expression,  or  it 
may  be  both  the  feeling  and  the  act  or  acts  through 
which  the  feeling  is  expressed.  Every  motion  of  the 
solitary  person  toward  God — an  aspiration,  an  adoring 
thought,  a  feeling  of  trustful  affection — is  worship, 
though  it  may  find  expression  in  no  other  act.  It  is 
also  worship  when  we  obey  our  Lord’s  command,  “But 
thou,  when  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thine  inner  cham¬ 
ber.  and  having  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father  who 

7 


8 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


is  in  secret,”  expressing  our  adoration,  love,  and  trust 
toward  God  in  the  act  of  secret  prayer.  It  is  true  wor¬ 
ship,  though  it  is  now  social  and  no  longer  private,  when 
a  group  or  company  of  persons  express  together  in 
appropriate  acts  their  common  feelings  of  adoring 
affection  and  trust  toward  God. 

The  acts  of  worship  through  which  Christians  usually 
express  their  feelings  of  worship  are:  the  use  of  Scrip¬ 
ture,  the  sacraments  of  baptism  and  the  Lord’s  Supper, 
prayer,  sacred  music,  and  the  bringing  of  offerings. 

The  place  of  worship  in  the  Christian  religion. 

Worship  is  the  very  heart  and  soul  of  religion. 
Religion,  and  in  particular  the  Christian  religion,  is 
communion  between  the  person  who  adores,  loves,  and 
trusts  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  and  the  God  and  Father  whom  he  wor¬ 
ships.  The  Christian  religion  can  no  more  exist  without 
this  personal  communion  between  Christians  and  the 
living  and  true  God  than  human  friendship  can  exist 
without  the  fellowship  of  friend  with  friend.  This 
personal  relationship  of  Christians  with  God,  through 
Jesus  Christ,  expressed  in  worship  is  the  root  and  main¬ 
spring  of  all  Christian  service.  Of  all  religious  duties 
and  privileges,  then,  the  duty  and  privilege  of  worship 
is  the  most  vital,  the  highest,  and  the  best. 

Why  worship  by  families? 

Worship  must  be  both  private  and  social.  Our  Lord 
not  only  commanded  us  to  pray  “in  secret,”  but  he 
also  commanded  us  to  pray  after  this  manner,  “Our 
Father  which  art  in  heaven.”  In  the  very  form  of 
address  to  God  in  The  Lord’s  prayer,  the  social  nature 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


9 


of  prayer  is  recognized.  What  is  true  of  prayer  is  true 
of  all  the  acts  of  worship.  We  do  not  live  to  ourselves, 
and  we  do  not  die  to  ourselves.  We  are  social  beings. 
We  are  born  into  social  relationships,  and  we  live  in 
ever-widening  and  deepening  social  relationships. 

No  function  of  our  lives  can  be  merely  secret  and 
private.  Every  function  of  our  lives  must  become  in 
one  way  or  another  public  and  social.  Christians  must 
worship  with  other  people,  that  is,  they  must  worship 
socially,  in  groups  and  companies.  “And  let  us  con¬ 
sider  one  another  to  provoke  unto  love  and  good 
works;  not  forsaking  our  own  assembling  together.” 
If  Christian  worship  by  social  groups  or  companies 
is  necessary,  then  Christian  worship  by  families  is 
necessary. 

There  are  at  least  four  reasons  for  family  worship: 

1.  The  family  is  the  smallest,  the  most  compact,  and 
the  most  intimate  social  group.  “God  setteth  the 
solitary  in  families.”  The  family  has  a  life  of  its  own  if 
any  social  group  has.  If  there  is  to  be  any  social  wor¬ 
ship  of  God,  if  persons  are  to  express  their  adoration, 
love,  and  trust  toward  God  by  social  groups,  then  it  is 
most  natural  and  necessary  that  they  should  do  so  by 
families.  A  Christian  family  life  that  does  not  express 
itself  in  family  worship  is  a  contradiction  in  terms.  If 
one  cannot  be  a  Christian  without  having  a  feeling  of 
“adoring  affection  and  trust  toward  Him  on  high,” 
expressed  in  acts  of  worship,  how  can  a  family  group  be 
Christian  with  no  common  worship?  Family  worship 
is  a  source,  as  it  is  the  consummation,  of  family  unity. 

2.  A  family  exists  for  the  nurture  of  children.  The 
chief  responsibility  and  the  chief  joy  of  the  Christian 
family  is  the  Christian  nurture  of  its  children.  How 


10 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


can  this  Christian  nurture  proceed  if  it  does  not  have  in 
it  the  essential  element  of  worship?  Certainly  there  can 
be  no  Christian  nurture  in  the  family  if  the  children  are 
not  provided  both  an  opportunity  to  worship  God  with 
the  family  and  a  training  in  the  meaning  and  use  of  those 
acts  through  which  the  feelings  of  adoration,  love,  and 
trust  toward  God  most  naturally  express  themselves. 
Family  worship  has,  then,  an  indispensable  place  in  the 
program  of  Christian  nurture  in  the  family:  first, 
because  it  provides  an  opportunity  for  the  children  to 
worship  God  with  the  family;  second,  because  it  fur¬ 
nishes  the  means  for  the  training  and  development  of 
the  children  in  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  worship. 

3.  Family  worship  as  a  source,  and  as  the  consum¬ 
mation,  of  a  Christian  family  life  tends  to  perpetuate 
itself.  A  godly  heritage  is  precious  not  only  in  itself 
but  also  because  it  perpetuates  itself  through  many 
generations.  When  a  young  man  and  a  young  woman 
set  up  a  home  of  their  own,  it  is  almost  inevitably  after 
the  blended  patterns  of  the  homes  from  which  they 
come.  Heredity,  environment,  and  education  alike 
combine  to  produce  this  continuity  of  family  life.  A 
Christian  family  life,  with  family  worship  at  its  heart, 
will  reproduce  itself  in  Christian  families  to  many 
generations.  A  Christian  family  can  make  no  greater 
contribution  to  the  Kingdom  of  God  than  this  casting 
of  its  light  down  the  generations  of  men. 

4.  Life  in  the  family  is  a  preparation  and  a  training 
for  life  in  the  larger  social  groups.  The  virtues  which 
the  children  learn  in  the  Christian  family  are  the  virtues 
which  when  practiced  in  the  larger  social  groups  will 
further  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  social  worship  of 
God  to  which  the  children  may  become  accustomed 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


11 


in  the  Christian  family  will  lead  them  into  larger  fellow¬ 
ships  of  worship,  such  as  the  Church,  the  whole  com¬ 
pany  of  believers,  and  will  enable  them  to  share  in  that 
ministry  of  worship  which  is  the  inspiration  of  all 
Christian  service. 


Chapter  II 

THE  ACTS  AND  METHODS  OF  FAMILY 

WORSHIP 

What  are  the  acts  of  family  worship? 

The  acts  of  worship  most  appropriate  to  the  family 
are  the  use  of  Scripture,  prayer,  and  song.  There  are 
other  acts  of  social  worship,  such  as  the  sacraments 
and  the  bringing  of  offerings,  which  are  not  appropriate 
to  the  family.  There  are  also  other  acts  of  worship 
which  may  be  appropriate  to  the  family,  but  these 
three  acts  are  the  most  common  and  the  most  appro¬ 
priate. 

What  are  the  principles  which  ought  to  control  family 
worship? 

There  are  many  ways  in  which  these  acts  of  worship 
may  be  adapted  to  the  use  of  the  family.  If  the  family 
consists  of  adults,  these  adaptations  in  the  use  of  the 
materials  of  worship  will  be  easy  and  natural.  But  when 
there  are  children  in  the  family,  care  must  be  taken 
that  the  worship  is  really  a  family  worship,  that  is, 
such  as  offers  an  opportunity  for  the  children  to  express 
to  God  the  adoration,  love,  and  trust  which  rise  out  of 
their  own  growing  needs  and  capacities.  The  family 
worship  must  not  be  merely  a  grown  folks’  worship 


12 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


under  which  the  early  aspirations  of  the  children  are 
crushed. 

There  are  four  general  principles  which  ought  to  be 
observed  in  the  worship  of  families  where  there  are 
young  children : 

1.  The  worship  program  ought  to  be  brief.  The  at¬ 
tention  of  children,  particularly  young  children,  can¬ 
not  be  held  for  any  length  of  time.  There  may  be  some 
disciplinary  value  in  making  children  sit  through  family 
prayers  after  their  capacity  of  interest  has  been  ex¬ 
hausted,  but  the  dulling  of  the  children’s  sense  of  the 
meaning  of  worship  outweighs  this  questionable  dis¬ 
ciplinary  value.  Ten  minutes  is  about  the  limit  for 
family  worship  where  there  are  young  children. 

2.  The  worship  program  ought  to  be  varied.  Varia¬ 
tions  which  provide  fresh  and  interesting  ways  of  ex¬ 
pressing  the  family  adoration,  love,  and  trust  toward 
God  will  make  the  exercise  more  vital  to  the  children. 
A  hard  routine  will  be  detrimental  to  the  spirit  of  the 
family  worship. 

3.  The  worship  program  ought  to  be  social.  The  fact 
that  we  are  considering  the  worship  of  a  family  must 
never  be  lost  from  view.  There  must  be  opportunity 
for  every  member  of  the  family  actively  to  engage  in 
the  worship. 

4.  The  worship  program  ought  to  be  adapted  to  the 
needs  and  capacities  of  the  youngest.  While  there 
must  be  elements  in  the  family  worship  which  express 
the  adoration,  love,  and  trust  of  each  member  of  the 
family,  it  is  most  necessary  that  the  needs  of  the 
younger  members  be  kept  clearly  in  view,  and  the  wor¬ 
ship  program  be  graded  to  meet  those  needs.  Chris¬ 
tian  worship  is  peculiarly  capable  of  this  adaptation. 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


13 


Its  spirit  is  essentially  a  spirit  of  childlike  trust. 
“Except  ye  turn,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall 
in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.” 

At  what  time  should  family  worship  be  held? 

The  most  common  excuse  for  not  having  family 
worship  is  the  lack  of  time.  Our  modern  life  is  so 
crowded  and  hurried  that  there  is  scarcely  time  for  a 
family  to  live  together,  much  less  worship  together. 
Against  this  excuse  there  are  two  facts  to  be  urged: 
First,  family  worship  does  not  take  so  much  time  as 
some  people  seem  to  suppose.  From  six  to  ten  minutes 
will  cover  the  usual  program  for  family  worship,  with 
perhaps  some  extension  of  time  on  Sundays  or  special 
days  such  as  holidays,  birthdays,  and  other  family 
anniversaries.  Second,  if  family  worship  is  vital  to  the 
family  life,  time  can  be  found  for  it.  As  Weigle  and 
Tweedy  write  in  their  “Training  the  Devotional  Life”: 
“Above  all  is  the  fact  that  by  many  the  need  of  family 
worship  is  not  felt  nor  is  its  value  appreciated.  The 
members  do  not  worship  because  they  have  no  worship 
to  express.”  It  is  a  sad  commentary  on  the  life  of  a 
family  to  say  that  it  has  no  feelings  of  adoration,  love, 
and  trust  toward  God  to  express,  or  that  having  such 
feelings,  it  can  find  no  time  in  which  to  express  them. 
Weigle  and  Tweedy  go  on:  “The  way  of  escape  is 
apparent.  Households  can  usually  find  a  time  for  any 
act  which  they  regard  as  of  vital  importance.  Ten 
minutes  earlier  rising  in  the  morning,  ten  quiet  minutes 
out  of  the  program  for  the  evening,  will  furnish  the 
opportunity.”  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  in  most 
cases  a  time  can  be  found.  There  are,  no  doubt,  families 
that  cannot  be  brought  together  in  the  course  of  a  day, 


14 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


but  they  are  relatively  few.  Such  families  could  wor¬ 
ship  by  groups,  or  gather  as  families  for  worship  on 
Sundays  or  such  special  days  as  found  them  together. 

Families  usually  gather  for  the  morning  and  evening 
meals.  Before  breakfast  or  after  breakfast,  before  or 
after  the  evening  meal,  are  appropriate  times  for  family 
worship.  Professor  Sharp  will  be  quoted  in  the  next 
chapter  as  thinking  that  it  is  fatal  to  rise  from  the  table, 
but  there  are  families  which  find  it  better  to  gather  in  a 
living  room,  perhaps  the  room  where  the  piano  or 
organ  stands,  where  there  may  be  less  disorder  than  in 
the  dining  room.  After  all,  with  a  family  will  to  wor¬ 
ship  God,  the  selection  of  a  time  and  a  place  for  the 
family  worship  is  a  matter  which  concerns  the  family 
convenience,  and  is  subject  to  no  general  rules,  except 
that  there  ought  to  be  a  regularity  about  both  time  and 
place. 

Chapter  III 

THE  USE  OF  MUSIC  IN  FAMILY  WORSHIP 

What  is  the  use  of  music  in  worship? 

In  “Training  the  Devotional  Life,”  by  Weigle  and 
Tweedy,  there  is  a  valuable  discussion  of  the  function 
of  music  in  worship  which  will  prepare  us  for  a  con¬ 
sideration  of  its  use  in  family  worship:  “The  thought¬ 
less  and  flippant  attitude  taken  toward  music  by  many 
people  is  amazing.  In  the  home  it  is  an  amusement; 
but  they  never  dream  that  it  may  purify  the  life  of  the 
family  and  vitally  affect  the  characters  of  the  children. 
In  the  church  it  is  a  pleasure,  a  means  of  drawing 
crowds  and  of  furnishing  variety;  but  that  songs  are 
helping  to  determine  men’s  ethical  ideals  and  spiritual 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


15 


power  never  occurs  to  these  people.  As  to  what  is  sung, 
and  why  it  is  sung,  and  the  results  attained,  they 
apparently  have  no  care. 

“This  is  more  than  incompetence.  It  is  irreverence 
toward  God  and  a  wrong  to  man.  For  music  is  a 
power.  ...  Its  highest  practical  efficiency  has  been 
reached  as  an  applied  art  in  the  service  of  religion. 
For  worship  and  music  have  always  been  closely  as¬ 
sociated.  It  is  a  long  way  from  the  symbolic  dance  and 
rude  chant  of  the  savage  to  the  Hallelujah  Chorus;  but 
the  journey  is  marked  by  melody  from  beginning  to 
end.  In  those  periods  when  religion  has  flourished  best, 
men  have  sung  most.  Without  music  worship  has 
seemed  imperfect  if  not  impossible. 

“  Even  pure  music  apart  from  speech  has  its  gracious 
ministry.  It  is  full  of  religious  suggestion  and  inspira¬ 
tion,  and  one  should  learn  to  worship  through  listening, 
as  Milton  did,  until  it  brought  all  heaven  before  his 
sightless  eyes.  The  prelude  to  public  worship,  often 
badly  chosen  and  rarely  heeded,  is  an  example.  This 
should  help  to  set  the  tone  and  beget  the  mood  of 
the  hour,  and  so  to  prepare  for  the  preacher’s  mes¬ 
sage.  .  .  . 

“But  it  is  when  associated  with  words  that  music 
becomes  most  effective.  .  .  .  ‘Let  me  write  a  people’s 
songs,  and  whosoever  will  may  write  their  laws’;  said 
an  astute  student  of  human  nature  centuries  ago.  To 
make  the  hymns  of  the  Church  is  to  shape  the  faith  of 
the  Church.  In  all  ages  hymns  have  been  prayers,  the 
spiritual  food,  the  creeds,  the  weapons  of  the  saints. 
Missionaries  have  gone  forth  as  singing  evangelists. 
‘By  his  songs  he  has  conquered  us’  cried  an  angry 
cardinal  as  he  witnessed  the  triumphs  of  Luther.  The 


16 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


Wesleyan  Revival  needed  the  hymns  of  Charles  as  well 
as  the  sermons  of  John:  and  there  is  good  reason  why 
the  names  of  Moody  and  Sankey,  of  Torrey  and  Alex¬ 
ander,  should  have  been  associated  in  our  own  time.” 

Suggestions  for  the  use  of  hymns  at  family  worship. 

All  this  can  well  be  applied  to  the  use  of  hymns  at 
family  worship.  Whatever  is  an  aid  to  worship  ought 
to  be  used  as  an  aid  to  family  worship.  Whatever 
serves  to  inspire  our  adoration,  love,  and  trust  toward 
God  finds  its  high  use  in  the  family.  There  are  several 
suggestions  that  may  be  made  with  reference  to  the 
use  of  hymns  at  family  worship. 

1.  In  families  where  there  are  young  children, 
children’s  hymns  ought  to  be  sung  part  of  the  time.  If 
the  children  attend  Sunday  school  they  may  suggest 
hymns  which  they  have  learned  at  Sunday  school;  or 
children’s  hymns  may  be  selected  from  the  Sunday- 
school  or  the  Church  hymnal.  The  hymns,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Scripture  passages  for  memorizing,  should 
be  learned  by  repetition.  It  is  sometimes  profitable  to 
repeat  the  words  without  the  music  until  they  are 
learned.  But,  in  general,  it  is.  perhaps  better  to  sing 
the  hymns  over  and  over  again  until  both  the  words 
and  the  music  are  naturally  fixed  in  the  memory.  Where 
the  children  are  very  small,  one  verse  or  two  verses  of  a 
hymn  will  probably  be  enough  for  practice  at  any  one 
worship  service.  Again,  there  is  an  advantage  in  having 
a  suitable  book  of  children’s  hymns  such  as  Danielson 
and  Conant,  “Songs  for  Little  People,”  or  Thomas, 
“A  First  Book  in  Hymns  and  Worship,”  from  which 
selections  may  be  made.  The  following  children’s 
hymns  are  specially  recommended; 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


17 


“Night  and  Day” 

“Father,  we  thank  thee” 

“We  plough  the  fields,  and  scatter” 

“For  the  beauty  of  the  earth” 

“Jesus,  tender  Shepherd” 

“I  Think  When  I  Read” 

“This  Is  My  Father’s  World” 

“Now  the  day  is  over”  (Evening) 

All  these  methods  of  using  children’s  hymns  may  be 
combined,  or  better,  they  may  all  be  used  in  combina¬ 
tion  with  the  methods  still  to  be  discussed. 

2.  The  great  hymns  of  the  Church  should  be  used  at 
family  worship.  No  matter  how  young  the  children 
are,  they  ought  to  be  given  the  opportunity  to  learn 
and  love  the  great  hymns  of  the  Church  which  Chris¬ 
tians  have  found  to  be  most  suitable  vehicles  for  their 
aspiring  adoration,  love,  and  trust. 

Dr.  Louis  F.  Benson  has  published  a  little  handbook 
entitled,  “The  Best  Hymns:  A  Text-Book  for  Memoriz¬ 
ing  Them.”  In  this  handbook  thirty -two  hymns  are 
listed,  of  which  Dr.  Benson  says:  “This  book  contains 
only  thirty-two  hymns,  but  these  are  fairly  entitled  to 
the  distinction  of  being  called  the  best.  They  are  the 
hymns  that  have  won  the  approval  of  all  the  great 
branches  of  Protestantism  speaking  the  English  tongue; 
the  hymns  that  at  the  present  time  are  in  the  widest 
actual  use  in  all  these  Churches  the  world  over;  the 
hymns,  therefore,  that  lie  closest  to  the  common  heart 
of  English-speaking  Christians.  These,  then,  are  the 
hymns  best  worth  our  learning.  And,  for  that  purpose, 
it  is  a  happy  thing  rather  than  otherwise  that  their 
number  is  small.  A  hymn  is  not  really  made  our  own 
until  it  has  become  as  familiar  as  the  thought  of  the 
heart,  and  can  sing  itself  in  the  darkness  without 
conscious  effort  of  the  memory.  And  it  will  be  a  far 


18 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


greater  gain  to  the  spiritual  life  if  time  and  pains  are 
devoted  to  mastering  the  few  best  hymns,  than  if  a 
larger  number,  however  good  in  themselves,  were 
covered  by  a  less  perfect  and  abiding  knowledge. 
Happily  the  effort  needed  to  master  a  good  hymn  is  less 
than  is  the  case  with  most  other  forms  of  literature; 
because  a  good  hymn  is  simple  in  thought,  orderly  in 
structure,  and  rhythmical  in  language,  and  the  sim¬ 
plicity  and  orderliness  and  rhythm  are  very  real  aids  to 
the  memory.  Even  were  the  effort  greater  than  it  is, 
it  would  be  amply  justified  by  the  manifold  assurance 
we  have  of  the  power,  the  inspiration,  the  consolation, 
of  remembered  hymns  in  the  heart.” 

All  this  is  directly  applicable  to  the  use  of  hymns  at 
family  worship.  Dr.  Benson’s  list  follows,  and  his  little 
book  is  commended  as  a  textbook  for  family  use  in 
learning  these  hymns  and  making  them  the  enduring 
possession  of  the  members  of  the  family: 

1.  Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me 

2.  When  I  survey  the  wondrous  cross 

3.  Jesus,  Lover  of  my  soul 

4.  All  praise  to  thee,  my  God,  this  night 

5.  Jesus,  I  my  cross  have  taken 

6.  Sun  of  my  soul,  thou  Saviour  dear 

7.  Awake,  my  soul,  and  with  the  sun 

8.  Hark!  the  herald  angels  sing 

9.  Abide  with  me:  fast  falls  the  eventide 

10.  Jerusalem,  my  happy  home 

11.  How  sweet  the  Name  of  Jesus  sounds 

12.  Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee 

13.  From  Greenland’s  icy  mountains 

14.  Our  God,  our  Help  in  ages  past 

15.  Jerusalem  the  golden 

16.  Lo!  He  comes,  with  clouds  descending 

17.  Jesus  shall  reign  where’er  the  sun 

18.  Glorious  things  of  thee  are  spoken 

19.  Hark,  the  glad  sound!  the  Saviour  comes 

20.  Come,  let  us  join  our  cheerful  songs 

21.  All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus’  name 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


10 


22.  Hail  to  the  Lord’s  Anointed 

23.  O  worship  the  King  all-glorious  above 

24.  Christ  the  Lord  is  risen  today 

25.  Guide  me,  O  thou  great  Jehovah 

26.  Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea 

27.  God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way 

28.  Jesus,  the  very  thought  of  thee 

29.  Children  of  the  heavenly  King 

30.  There  is  a  land  of  pure  delight 

31.  Thou,  whose  almighty  word 

32.  Brief  life  is  here  our  portion 

In  addition  to  these  best  hymns,  the  family  will  no 
doubt  desire  to  sing  other  good  hymns  in  common  use 
in  the  services  of  public  worship  to  which  they  are 
accustomed.  The  Church  hymnal,  with  the  Sunday- 
school  hymnal,  will  be  a  treasury  of  such  familiar 
hymns. 

3.  The  hymns  used  at  family  worship  ought  to  be 
carefully  explained  so  that  they  may  be  understood  and 
felt  and  turned  into  prayer.  The  method  of  memori¬ 
zation  which  has  already  been  suggested  should  be 
accompanied  by  explanations  of  difficult  passages  or  of 
allusions  in  the  hymns.  In  addition  it  will  add  to  the 
value  of  the  hymns  for  worship  if  occasionally  the 
story  of  the  hymn  is  read  or  told  to  illustrate  the  spirit 
out  of  which  it  grew.  Such  books  as  Dr.  Benson’s  “  The 
Best  Hymns:  A  Text-Book  for  Memorizing  Them,” 
or  his  “Studies  of  Familiar  Hymns,”  or  “A  Treasure  of 
Hymns,”  by  Amos  B.  Wells,  or  “History  and  Use  of 
Hymns  and  Hymn  Tunes,”  by  D.  B.  Breed,  will  be 
most  useful. 


20 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


Chapter  IV 

THE  USE  OF  SCRIPTURE  IN  FAMILY 

WORSHIP 

Turning  the  Scripture  into  prayer. 

Robert  M.  M’Cheyne,  in  his  “Letter  to  a  Roy,” 
writes:  “You  read  your  Rible  regularly,  of  course;  but 
do  try  to  understand  it,  and  still  more  to  feel  it.  .  .  . 
Turn  the  Rible  into  prayer.”  Here  is  the  key  to  the  use 
of  the  Rible  in  worship — it  is  to  be  understood ;  it  is  to 
be  felt,  above  all,  it  is  to  be  turned  into  prayer  in  the 
sense  that  it  is  to  be  made  the  medium  of  expressing 
our  adoration,  love,  and  trust  toward  God. 

At  family  worship  passages  of  Scripture  may  be  either 
recited  from  memory  or  read. 

The  recitation  of  Scripture  at  family  worship. 

1.  The  passages  may  be  recited.  One  of  the  best 
ways  for  securing  variety,  as  well  as  the  participation 
of  the  child,  is  for  the  father  and  mother  to  recite  some 
suitable  passage  of  Scripture.  The  child  will  learn  it, 
after  hearing  it  repeated  several  times,  without  any 
strain  on  his  attention.  When  one  passage  has  been 
learned,  another  may  be  recited  until  it  becomes  the 
child’s  possession.  When  a  family  stock  of  such  pas¬ 
sages  has  been  accumulated,  the  child  may  sometimes 
be  allowed  to  choose  the  passage  to  be  recited.  The 
following  passages  are  suggested  for  such  use: 

Gen.  1:1-5  Ps.  19:1-6  Ex.  20:13-17 

Gen.  1 : 26-28,  31  Ps.  19 : 7-10  Ps.  1 : 1-3 

Ps.  24:1-4  Ex.  20 : 1-6  Ps.  1 : 4-6 

Ps.  24:7-10  Ex.  20:7-12  Prov.  3:1-6 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


21 


Deut.  6:4-7 

Luke  2: 12-14 

Matt.  28:1-4 

Eccl.  12: 1-4,  13,  14 

John  1 : 1-4 

Matt.  28:5-7 

Ps.  103:1-5 

Matt.  5:2-6 

Matt.  28: 16,  18-20 

Ps.  103:10-14 

Matt.  5:7-10 

Acts  1 : 7-9 

Psalm  23 

Matt.  11:28-30 

Acts  2:1-4 

Ps.  19:11-14 

Mark  8:34-37 

Rom.  12:1,  2 

Ps.  139:1-4,  23,  24 

Mark  10:43-45 

I  Cor.  3: 16,  17 

Ps.  84:1-3 

Mark  12:30,  31 

I  Cor.  13: 1-3 

Ps.  84:9-12 

John  3:14-16 

I  Cor.  13:4-8,  13 

Isa.  55: 1-3 

John  14: 1-3 

Phil.  3:13,  14 

Isa.  55:6-8 

Luke  23 : 34,  43 

Phil.  4:8 

Isa.  55:9-11 

John  19:26,  27 

II  Peter  1 : 5-7 

Isa.  53:3-7 

Mark  15:34,  36 

Rev.  22:1-4 

Isa.  9: 6,  7 

John  19:30 

Rev.  22:14-17 

Luke  2:8-11 

Luke  23:46 

These  passages  are 

listed  in  “  Scripture 

Memory  Work,” 

by  Gerrit  Verkuyl,  which  also  contains  helps  for  the 
leader. 


Sometimes  instead  of  repeating  a  whole  passage,  each 
member  of  the  family  may  contribute  a  verse  or  verses. 
In  this  case  the  children  should  be  prepared  beforehand. 
The  golden  texts  or  other  memory  verses  learned  in 
Sunday  school  may  be  emphasized  by  such  repetition. 

The  reading  of  Scripture  at  family  worship. 

The  passages  may  also  be  read.  If  they  are  read 
(a)  how  shall  they  be  selected?  (6)  who  shall  read 
them?  (c)  how  shall  they  be  explained  so  that  they  may 
be  understood  and  felt? 

(a)  How  shall  the  passages  to  be  read  at  family 
worship  be  selected? 

They  may  be  selected  from  day  to  day  to  meet  the 
family  needs. 

The  father  of  the  family  in  “The  Cottar’s  Saturday 
Night” 

“  .  .  .  wales  a  portion  with  judicious  care; 

And,  ‘Let  us  worship  God!’  he  says  with  solemn  air.” 


22 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


After  singing  a  psalm, 

“The  priest-like  father  reads  the  sacred  page, 

How  Abram  was  the  friend  of  God  on  high; 

Or,  Moses  bade  eternal  warfare  wage 
With  Amalek’s  ungracious  progeny; 

Or  how  the  royal  bard  did  groaning  lie 
Beneath  the  strokes  of  Heaven’s  avenging  ire; 

Or  Job’s  pathetic  plaint,  and  wailing  cry; 

Or  rapt  Isaiah’s  wild,  seraphic  fire; 

Or  other  sacred  seers  that  tune  the  sacred  lyre. 

Perhaps  the  Christian  volume  is  the  theme, 

How  guiltless  blood  for  guilty  man  was  shed; 

How  he,  who  bore  in  Heaven  the  second  name. 

Had  not  on  earth  whereon  to  lay  his  head: 

How  His  first  followers  and  servants  sped, 

The  precepts  sage  they  wrote  to  many  a  land : 

How  he,  who  lone  in  Patmos  banished, 

Saw  in  the  sun  a  mighty  angel  stand, 

And  heard  great  Bab’lon’s  doom  pronounced  by  Heaven’s 
command.” 

If  this  method  is  followed  the  “judicious  care”  of  the 
“priest-like  father”  must  be  emulated.  And  that 
judicious  care  should  adapt  the  passages  to  both  the 
needs  and  the  capacities  of  the  members  of  the  family. 

The  passages  may  be  those  already  selected  for  the 
purpose,  in  various  ways. 

It  used  to  be  a  more  or  less  general  custom  to  follow 
the  “Daily  Home  Readings”  selected  in  connection 
with  the  International  Uniform  Sunday-school  Lessons. 
The  rise  of  various  systems  of  graded  Sunday-school 
lessons  robs  this  practice  of  its  chief  value  for  families 
which  attend  a  Sunday  school  in  which  graded  lessons 
are  used. 

Many  of  the  religious  weeklies  regularly  publish 
materials  for  family  worship,  including  suggested 
Scripture  readings.  There  are  also  some  monthly 
magazines  devoted  to  the  family  altar  in  which  not  only 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


23 


are  Scriptural  passages  suggested,  but  prayers,  der 
votional  comments,  and  the  like  are  printed. 

There  is  an  increasing  number  of  manuals  for  family 
worship,  some  of  which  list  and  some  of  which  print 
Scripture  passages  covering  a  limited  period  of  time, 
together  with  prayers  and  other  helps.  The  Presby¬ 
terian  Book  of  Family  Worship,  for  example,  suggests 
a  psalm  and  a  lesson  for  the  morning  and  the  evening 
of  each  day  of  the  year,  together  with  a  prayer  for  each 
worship  service  for  five  weeks,  and  prayers  for  special 
occasions.  Dr.  J.  Wilbur  Chapman’s  “  Day  After  Day  ” 
prints  a  Scripture  passage  and  a  prayer  for  morning 
worship  over  a  period  of  thirteen  weeks. 

Some  pastors,  either  through  their  church  bulletins  or 
through  special  pamphlets,  suggest  Scripture  readings 
for  family  worship  in  the  congregation. 

The  whole  Bible  or  major  portions  of  it  may  be  read 
through  in  course. 

There  is  something  to  be  said  for  reading  the  whole 
Bible  through  in  course.  Such  reading  enriches  the 
experience  with  the  whole  of  God’s  Word  to  man  in  its 
unity  and  variety.  In  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  June, 
1920,  Dallas  Lore  Sharp,  Professor  of  English  at  Boston 
University  had  an  article  on  “Education  for  Individu¬ 
ality,”  in  which  he  describes  the  custom  of  Bible 
reading  at  family  prayers  in  his  family,  as  follows: 

“We  began  the  reading  years  ago — none  of  us  can 
remember  when — in  a  haphazard  way  (after  the  train¬ 
ing  I  had  had  in  Sunday  school).  This  was  soon 
changed  to  a  regular,  orderly  way,  which,  starting  with 
Genesis,  went  forward  a  chapter  a  day,  until,  by  and 
by,  it  came  to  the  end  of  Bevelation.  And  the  next 


24 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


morning  we  turned  back  and  started  in  again  with 
Genesis,  which  was  as  fresh  as  if  we  had  not  read  it 
some  two  or  three  years  before  ....  The  daily  reading 
was  and  is  the  big  thing — right  along  from  day  to  day, 
dry  places,  hard  places,  and  bad  places,  never  missing 
a  line — not  even  the  numbering  of  the  tribes,  the 
building  of  the  Tabernacle,  the  Who-begat-Whom 
chapters,  Ruth  and  Rahab  and  the  Scarlet  Woman; 
everybody,  everything  just  as  it  reads,  without  a 
quiver,  and  with  endless  joy  and  zest. 

“If  it  is  a  ‘dry’  place  like  the  building  of  the  Taber¬ 
nacle,  so  much  the  better  lesson  in  patience  and  con¬ 
centration;  if  it  is  a  ‘bad’  place  (and  there  are  some 
horrid  spots  in  the  Old  Testament),  the  children 
had  better  have  it  frankly  with  us,  than  on  the  sly, 
and  have  it  early  while  their  only  interest  in  it  is  the 
interest  of  fact.  If  it  is  a  ‘hard’  place,  as  it  was  this 
morning  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  Joshua,  we  lick  it 
up,  to  see  who  can  do  the  cleanest  job  of  pronunciation, 
who  can  best  handle  his  tongue,  and  make  most  poetry 
out  of  the  cities  with  their  villages. 

“But  there  are  the  beautiful  places,  the  thrilling 
places — the  story,  the  poetry,  the  biography,  the 
warning,  the  exhortation,  the  revelation,  the  priest, 
the  prophet,  the  Great  Teacher,  the  Twelve  Disciples, 
kings  and  common  people,  and  everywhere  the  presence 
of  God.” 

It  may  be  said  that  such  a  practice  violated  the  prin¬ 
ciples  laid  down  in  the  previous  paragraphs.  To  this  it 
may  be  replied  that  it  all  depends  upon  how  the  reading 
is  done.  This  is  Professor  Sharp’s  description  of  the 
method  in  his  family:  “Each  of  us  has  his  own  Bible, 
and  one  of  the  boys  is  Bible-warden.  He  puts  them  on 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


25 


after  breakfast,  as  the  old  servant  in  the  Ruskin  house¬ 
hold  put  on  the  dessert.  Every  morning  as  soon  as 
breakfast  is  over,  and  while  we  are  still  at  the  table  (it 
is  fatal  to  rise),  the  Bibles  are  brought  in  and  passed 
around,  and  beginning  at  the  head  of  the  table,  we  read 
aloud  in  turn,  dividing  the  chapter  by  verses  equally 
among  us.  Seven  mornings  a  week,  D.  V.,  we  do  this, 
and  on  Sunday  morning,  for  years,  those  seven  chapters 
were  reviewed,  discussed,  and  illustrated  with  a  series 
of  great  Bible  pictures.”  Besides  this  other  books  were 
sometimes  studied  in  the  interest  of  understanding  the 
Biblical  passages,  and  maps  were  used.  Then  the 
family  repeated  The  Lord’s  Prayer  and  sang  the  Dox- 
ology.  The  program  of  worship  was  brief.  The  variety 
in  the  Scripture  passages  furnished  variety  to  the  pro¬ 
gram.  It  was  social :  all  participated  in  the  reading,  the 
prayer,  and  the  Doxology.  Explanations,  pictures,  and 
the  like  interpreted  the  meaning  of  the  Scripture  so  that 
it  could  be  understood  and  felt. 

Dr.  Robert  Wells  Yeach,  in  his  “Bible  Reading  and 
Religious  Training  in  the  Home,”  outlines  a  course  of 
reading  which  will  cover  the  major  portion  of  Scripture 
in  two  years.  There  are  many  outlines  ot  this  kind. 

There  are  also  many  variations  of  the  method  which 
insures  the  reading  of  most  of  the  Scripture  at  family 
worship.  M’Cheyne  in  the  “Letter  to  a  Boy”  already 
quoted,  writes,  “Read  more  parts  than  one  at  a  time. 
For  example,  if  you  are  reading  Genesis,  read  a  Psalm 
also;  or  if  you  are  reading  Matthew,  read  a  small  bit  of 
an  epistle  also.”  The  Presbyterian  Book  of  Family 
Worship  selects  a  psalm  and  a  lesson  for  the  morning 
and  for  the  evening  of  each  day  of  the  year,  thus  pre¬ 
serving  the  ancient  distinction  between  the  psalter  and 


26 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


Scripture.  If  family  worship  is  held  but  once  a  day, 
these  selections  will  serve  for  two  years. 

(6)  Who  shall  read  the  passage  at  family  worship? 

As  a  general  practice  the  reading  of  Scripture  at 
family  worship  should  be  social,  that  is,  participated  in 
by  all.  There  may  be  special  occasions  when  it  is  most 
fitting  that  the  head  of  the  family  should  read  the  pas¬ 
sage,  or  the  reading  may  now  and  then  be  delegated  to 
a  child.  If  the  children  in  the  family  are  too  young  to 
read,  the  method  of  recitation  already  described  is  best. 
If  there  are  children  in  a  family  who  cannot  read  and 
children  who  can,  the  methods  of  reading  and  recitation 
may  be  alternated  or  combined  in  various  ways. 

Social  participation  in  the  reading  of  the  Scripture 
may  be  secured  by  reading  in  unison,  by  reading  verse 
about,  or  by  reading  verses  about.  The  method  of 
securing  the  participation  does  not  matter  so  much  as 
the  participation  itself. 

(c)  How  shall  the  passage  read  at  family  worship  be 
explained  so  that  it  will  be  understood,  felt,  and 
turned  into  prayer? 

Again,  it  is  profitable  to  recall  M’Cheyne’s  advice  to 
the  boy:  “But  do  try  to  understand  it,  and  still  more  to 
feel  it  ...  .  Turn  the  Bible  into  prayer.”  When  there 
are  children  in  the  family,  it  is  most  necessary  that  the 
Scripture  be  so  explained  and  so  illustrated  that  they 
may  understand  and  feel  it  and  turn  it  into  prayer. 
There  are  various  ways  of  doing  this.  In  a  family 
where  there  are  young  children  the  story  passages  used 
in  family  worship  may  be  retold  in  language  which  the 
child  can  better  understand.  The  gist  of  other  passages 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


27 


may  also  be  given  in  language  more  suited  to  the  child 
and  in  closer  contact  with  his  own  experience.  The 
reading  of  the  passage  may  be  interspersed  with  com¬ 
ments  by  the  leader  which  explain  words  and  phrases, 
or  point  the  teaching  with  an  illustration,  or  apply  the 
meaning  of  the  passage  to  a  situation  within  the  child’s 
experience. 

The  method  of  question  and  answer  may  also  be 
used  with  profit.  The  children  may  be  encouraged  to 
ask  questions  about  anything  in  the  passage  about 
which  they  would  like  further  explanation.  The  head 
of  the  family  may  ask  questions  which  will  discover 
what  the  children  do  not  understand,  and  the  following 
explanation  will  fix  in  their  memories  a  store  of  Biblical 
truth.  Of  course,  the  methods  just  discussed  are  not 
mutually  exclusive.  They  may  all  be  employed. 

Pictures  may  also  be  of  great  value  in  making  Biblical 
scenes  real  and  in  explaining  their  meaning.  Repro¬ 
ductions  of  the  great  religious  masterpieces  are  useful. 
The  prints  published  by  the  W.  A.  Wilde  Company, 
120  Boylston  Street,  Boston,  Massachusetts,  or  by  the 
Perry  Pictures  Company,  Malden,  Massachusetts,  or 
by  George  P.  Brown  and  Company,  38  Lovett  Street, 
Beverly,  Massachusetts,  are  inexpensive  and  very  good. 
Maps  may  also  be  used  to  good  effect  when  the  passage 
is  historical.  Nothing  helps  the  study  of  history  like  a 
good  map. 

There  are  numberless  adaptations  of  these  suggested 
methods  for  making  the  Scripture  understood  and  felt. 
They  must  all  be  used  with  the  end  in  view  of  turning 
the  Scripture  into  prayer. 

The  purpose  of  worship  in  the  expression  of  adoration, 
love,  and  trust  to  God  must  never  be  lost  from  sight. 


28 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


Chapter  V 

THE  USE  OF  PRAYER  IN  FAMILY  WORSHIP 

It  is  perhaps  an  inexperience  in  prayer  which  leads 
many  heads  of  families  to  neglect  their  duty  in  main¬ 
taining  family  worship.  That  inexperience  can  scarcely 
be  overcome  by  anything  but  experience.  The  way  to 
learn  how  to  pray  is  to  pray.  The  way  to  learn  how  to 
pray  out  loud  and  in  the  company  of  others  is  to  begin 
to  do  it.  Is  it  better  for  a  child  to  grow  up  without  ever 
so  much  as  having  heard  his  father’s  voice  in  prayer  or 
for  him  to  grow  up  with  indelible  and  precious  memories 
of  a  father  who,  though  lisping  and  stammering,  led  his 
child  into  the  mysteries  of  prayer? 

What  is  prayer? 

The  Shorter  Catechism  definition  can  scarcely  be 
improved  on:  “Prayer  is  an  offering  up  of  our  desires 
unto  God,  for  things  agreeable  to  his  will,  in  the  name 
of  Christ,  with  confession  of  our  sins,  and  thankful 
acknowledgment  of  his  mercies.”  There  could  be  no 
better  preparation  for  the  father  of  a  family  about  to 
undertake  family  worship  than  a  study  of  this  definition 
with  the  help  of  the  appropriate  section  in  Alexander 
Whyte’s  “A  Commentary  on  the  Shorter  Catechism”; 
to  which  should  be  added  an  incomparable  book  on 
prayer  by  the  same  master,  “Lord,  Teach  Us  to  Pray.” 

For  the  present  purpose  let  us  seize  on  the  first  clause 
of  the  definition:  “Prayer  is  an  offering  up  of  our 
desires  unto  God.”  Dr.  Whyte’s  comment  on  this 
clause  is  as  follows:  “All  prayer  presupposes  need,  and 
a  desire  to  possess  the  things  needed.  Such  desire  is 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


29 


altogether  indispensable  to  true  prayer.  And  in  many 
passages  of  Scripture  a  true  desire  is  represented  as  all 
that  is  needed  to  make  prayer  acceptable  and  effectual. 
And  on  the  other  hand,  where  earnest  desire  is  absent, 
nothing  will  make  up  for  the  want  of  it.  God  answers 
no  man’s  prayer  when  his  heart  is  not  engaged  in  his 
supplication.” 

Not  fine  words,  but  true  desires  make  prayer.  Is 
there  a  father  who  has  earnest  desires  for  his  family  to 
offer  up  unto  God?  He  has  the  necessary  qualification 
to  lead  in  family  prayer.  Is  there  a  father  who  has  the 
use  of  fine  words  but  no  true  desires  on  behalf  of  his 
family?  He  has  no  qualification  to  lead  his  family  in 
prayer.  Lack  of  experience  in  praying  out  loud  is  no 
real  hindrance  to  leading  family  prayer;  lack  of  ex¬ 
perience  in  true  and  holy  desires  for  the  family  is  a 
fatal  barrier. 

Suggestions  for  family  prayer. 

There  are  some  suggestions  about  family  prayer 
which  grow  out  of  the  nature  of  prayer  and  the  nature 
of  the  family. 

1.  Prayer  in  the  family  must  be  sincere.  Sincerity 
is  necessary  to  true  prayer  of  every  kind,  whether  secret 
or  social.  Jonathan  Edwards  wrote  in  his  diary,  “  It  is 
best  to  be  careful  in  prayer  not  to  put  up  those  petitions 
of  which  I  do  not  feel  a  true  desire;  for  thereby  my 
prayer  is  rendered  less  sincere,  less  acceptable  to  God, 
and  less  useful  to  myself.”  The  same  could  be  said  with 
double  emphasis  about  prayer  in  the  family. 

2.  Prayer  in  the  family  must  be  reverent.  This  may 
be  said  of  all  prayer,  as  well  as  of  all  worship.  It  is  of 
the  very  nature  of  our  adoration,  love,  and  trust  toward 


30 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


God  that  it  should  be  reverent.  Of  reverence  in  family 
prayer,  Dr.  Whyte  says  in  his  “Lord,  Teach  Us  to 
Pray”:  “But  even  when  family  worship  is  never — 
morning  or  night — pushed  into  a  corner,  it  might  almost 
better  be.  The  regulation  chapter;  the  wooden  mon¬ 
otony  ;  the  mechanical  round ;  the  absence  of  a  thought, 
or  an  idea,  or  an  emotion,  or  a  feeling;  one  pushing 
about  a  creaking  chair  when  he  is  on  his  knees:  another 
yawning  until  the  whole  room  is  ashamed  of  the  in¬ 
decency:  another  coughing  and  sneezing  without  cere¬ 
mony:  and  then — before  Amen  is  well  uttered — all  the 
room  beginning  to  talk  at  once :  it  had  been  bottled  up 
for  the  past  ten  minutes.  I  only  know  one  house,  in  all 
my  acquaintance,  where  ordinary  decorum  is  taught  to 
the  children  and  the  guests  in  the  matter  of  a  moment 
of  reverential  silence  before  the  babel  begins  again  after 
prayer  to  God.” 

3.  Prayer  in  the  family  ought  to  be  brief.  This  is 
particularly  true  where  there  are  young  children  in  the 
family.  It  is  enough  to  remember  that  we  are  thinking 
of  family  prayer,  that  is,  prayer  in  which  all  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  family  may  participate.  A  few  sentences,  if 
fitly  chosen,  will  suffice.  “And  in  praying  use  not  vain 
repetitions,  as  the  Gentiles  do:  for  they  think  that  they 
shall  be  heard  for  their  much  speaking.” 

4.  Prayer  in  the  family  ought  to  be  social;  that  is,  it 
ought  to  be  adapted  to  the  needs  and  capacities  of  the 
members  of  the  family.  For  the  sake  of  the  little  chil¬ 
dren,  the  older  members  of  the  family  must  turn  and 
become  as  little  children  in  prayer.  This  means  that 
when  there  are  children  in  the  family  the  prayer  ought 
not  only  to  be  simple  but  also  to  arise  out  of  the  living 
experience  of  the  children;  it  ought  to  express  their 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


31 


aspirations.  Of  course,  family  prayer  ought  to  be 
such  that  the  actual  religious  experience  of  the  children 
will  be  not  only  expressed  but  also  enlarged  and  en¬ 
riched. 

Here  is  the  natural  place  to  discuss  the  question,  who 
should  lead  in  family  prayer?  The  head  of  the  family 
is  the  natural  leader  of  the  family  in  prayer.  But  he 
ought  to  prepare  himself  for  his  leadership  not  only  so 
that  he  shall  be  in  the  mood  and  spirit  of  prayer  but 
also  so  that  he  can  interpret  the  true  desires  of  every 
member  of  his  family  to  God.  But  beyond  this,  it  is 
desirable  that  the  children  should  be  given  the  privilege 
on  occasion,  of  leading  the  family  prayer.  This  may  be 
done  by  assigning  the  privilege  in  advance  to  this  or 
that  child.  Or  it  may  be  done  by  substituting  now  and 
then  brief  prayers  by  each  member  of  the  family  for  the 
one  family  prayer.  In  any  case,  the  social  element  may 
be  introduced  by  the  family’s  repeating  in  unison,  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  special  prayer,  some  form  of  prayer, 
such  as  The  Lord’s  Prayer  or  any  other  that  may  seem 
suitable. 

Another  question  that  may  properly  be  discussed 
here  is  the  relative  merit  of  extempore  prayer  and  forms 
of  prayer.  There  is  much  to  be  said  for  the  use  of 
forms  of  prayer  which  have  commended  themselves, 
like  the  great  hymns,  to  the  Christian  consciousness. 
Something  may  also  be  said  for  the  use  of  forms  of 
prayer  such  as  are  widely  available  in  the  manuals  for 
family  worship.  How  much  can  be  said  for  these  forms 
depends  on  the  forms  themselves.  At  the  best,  there  is 
a  gain  in  the  use  of  forms  of  prayer  where  those  forms 
have  an  orderliness,  a  richness,  and  a  dignity  which  is 
beyond  most  of  us  in  voluntary  prayer.  At  the  worst, 


32 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


there  is  a  loss  of  spontaneity,  of  sincerity,  of  reality. 
In  addition,  most  current  forms  are  ill  adapted  to  the 
expression  of  the  spiritual  desires  of  children.  The  best 
forms  of  prayer  may  well  serve  as  models  for  family 
prayer.  Their  occasional  use  will  influence  the  extem¬ 
pore  prayers  in  the  direction  of  orderliness,  richness, 
and  dignity.  Their  constant  use  is  likely  to  steal  away 
the  spirit  of  prayer  which  is  true  desire  offered  up  to 
God. 

It  is  true  that  no  family  prayer  ought  to  be  extempore 
in  the  sense  that  there  has  been  no  preparation  for  it. 
Being  the  highest  expression  of  family  life,  family 
prayer  ought  to  spring  out  of  a  rich  preparation  of  the 
mind  and  heart  of  the  leader.  That  preparation  might 
well  take  the  form  of  a  written  prayer,  written  down  by 
the  leader  in  preparation  for  his  appearance  with  the 
family  at  God’s  throne.  In  families  where  the  only 
reason  for  the  use  of  forms  of  prayer  is  the  inexperience 
of  the  family  in  prayer,  those  forms  may  be  discarded, 
or  used  only  on  occasion,  after  an  experience  of  prayer 
has  been  gained  through  their  use,  as  a  lame  man  dis¬ 
cards  a  crutch  when  he  has  learned  to  walk  without  it. 

It  is  possible,  of  course,  to  combine  the  use  of  ex¬ 
tempore  prayer  with  the  use  of  forms  as  is  suggested  in 
the  discussion  of  the  social  nature  of  family  prayer. 

5.  Family  prayer  ought  to  turn  the  Scripture  and  the 
hymn  of  family  worship  toward  God.  The  aspirations 
which  have  been  aroused  by  the  hymn  and  the  Scrip¬ 
ture  ought  to  find  explicit  expression  in  the  family 
prayer.  In  his  comment  of  the  phrase  “  for  things  agree¬ 
able  to  his  will”  in  the  Shorter  Catechism  definition  of 
prayer,  Dr.  Whyte  quotes  Edward  Irving  as  saying: 
‘"The  first  step  toward  prayer,  therefore,  is  the  knowl- 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


33 


edge  of  the  promises  of  God,  which  are,  as  it  were,  the 
charter  to  go  by.”  In  the  family  prayer  the  leader  may 
well  plead  the  promises  of  God  discovered  in  the 
Scripture  or  unfolded  by  the  hymn. 

6.  Family  prayer  ought  to  be  varied.  It  is  impossible 
to  go  the  whole  round  of  prayer  in  ten  minutes  or  in 
ten  hours.  But  it  would  be  a  sad  loss  if  family  prayer 
stuck  fast  in  a  rut  and  never  made  the  round.  The 
leader  must  study  the  elements  of  prayer  and  enrich 
the  life  of  the  family  with  them  in  season.  Now  one 
element  and  now  another  will  predominate  and  give 
the  tone  to  the  family  prayer.  But  every  element  ought 
to  find  its  place  and  add  its  glory  to  the  family  worship. 
There  are  several  generally  recognized  elements  in  com¬ 
plete  and  orderly  prayer.  These  are:  adoration,  con¬ 
fession,  thanksgiving,  petition,  intercession,  and  sub¬ 
mission. 

(a)  Adoration.  The  psalmist  writes,  “I  have  set 
Jehovah  always  before  me.”  The  purpose  of  adoration 
in  prayer  is  to  set  the  Lord  before  us,  to  begin  our  prayer 
with  an  adoration  of  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  for  what  he  is.  The  Lord’s 
Prayer  opens  with  adoration,  “Our  Father  which  art  in 
heaven.”  When  we  call  God  our  Father  in  heaven,  and 
contemplate  him  as  our  Father  in  heaven  we  adore  him, 
setting  him  before  us  in  all  the  glory  of  his  heavenly 
fatherhood. 

Dr.  Alexander  Whyte,  in  the  thirteenth  sermon  of  his 
“Lord,  Teach  Us  to  Pray,”  writes:  “Petition  is  the 
lowest,  the  most  rudimentary  and  the  most  elementary 
of  all  kinds  of  prayer.  And  it  is  because  we  so  seldom 
rise  above  the  rudiments  and  first  principles  of  divine 
things  that  we  so  seldom  think  and  so  seldom  speak, 


34 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


about  prayer  in  any  other  sense  than  that  of  request  and 
petition  and  supplication.  Whereas  praise — pure,  eman¬ 
cipated,  enraptured,  adoring  praise — is  the  supremest 
and  most  perfect  of  all  kinds  of  prayer.  Thanksgiving 
is  higher  and  purer  than  petition;  while,  again,  it  is 
lower  and  less  blessed  than  holy,  heavenly,  God-adoring 
praise.” 

(6)  Confession.  Confession  naturally  follows  on 
adoration.  When  we  set  the  God  and  Father  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  before  us,  we  inevitably 
have  a  new  sense  of  our  own  sinfulness.  Dr.  Whyte 
says  in  his  commentary  on  the  Shorter  Catechism 
phrase,  “with  confession  of  our  sins”:  “  It  is  impossible 
that  a  sinner  should  truly  draw  near  to  God  in  the  name 
of  Christ  without  such  a  sense  of  his  corruption  and 
guilt  being  awakened  within  him  as  to  make  him  in¬ 
troduce  and  intersperse  his  prayer  with  confession  of  sin 
and  lamentation  on  account  of  it.  Let  the  student  pass 
his  mind  over  the  record  of  Scripture,  and  mark  how 
universal  and  how  acceptable  this  state  of  mind  was  in 
God’s  people.  There  is  nothing  more  becoming  sinful 
men  than  confession  and  contrition.” 

(c)  Thanksgiving.  As  confession  inevitably  follows 
adoration,  so  thanksgiving  in  the  Christian  inevitably 
follows  confession.  We  draw  near  to  God  in  adoring 
praise.  We  are  struck  with  our  own  corruption  and 
guilt.  We  are  raised  up  and  revived  again  with  a  sense 
of  all  God’s  goodness  and  mercy  to  us,  in  his  providence 
and  most  of  all  in  his  redeeming  grace.  This  sense  of 
God’s  goodness  and  grace  is  expressed  in  thanksgivings. 
“In  nothing  be  anxious ;  but  in  everything  by  prayer  and 
supplication  with  thanksgiving  let  your  requests  be 
made  known  unto  God.” 


FAMILY  WORSHIP 


35 


“The  virtues  were  invited  once 

To  banquet  with  the  Lord  of  All; 

They  came — the  great  ones  rather  grim, 

And  not  so  pleasant  as  the  small. 

“They  talked  and  chatted  o’er  the  meal, 

They  even  laughed  with  temp’rate  glee; 

And  each  one  knew  the  other  well, 

And  all  were  good  as  good  could  be. 

“Benevolence  and  Gratitude 

Alone  of  all  seemed  strangers  yet; 

They  stared  when  they  were  introduced — 

On  earth  they  never  once  had  met.” 

(d)  Petition.  A  thankful  acknowledgment  of  God’s 
mercies  encourages  us  to  ask  for  new  mercies.  In  our 
petitions  let  us  recall  the  Shorter  Catechism  phrase, 
“for  things  agreeable  to  his  will.”  On  this  phrase  Dr. 
Whyte  commented:  “We  ought  to  ask  nothing  in 
prayer  that  we  know  not  to  be  agreeable  to  the  will  of 
God,  and  we  ought  to  use  every  endeavor  to  find  out 
what  is  agreeable  to  his  will;  for  assuredly,  neither  by 
prayer,  or  by  any  other  effort  of  ours,  shall  we  get 
anything  which  is  not  so  agreeable.  Before  we  pray, 
we  must,  so  far  as  we  can,  learn  his  will  about  the 
things  we  desire,  and  restrain  or  put  forward  our  prayer 
accordingly.  And  we  have  God’s  will  revealed  so  as  to 
be  our  guide  in  prayer  as  in  all  other  matters  of  faith 
and  duty.” 

(< e )  Intercession.  Intercession  is  a  form  of  petition, 
but  it  is  well  to  mention  it  separately  since  of  all  forms 
of  petition  it  is  the  most  neglected  and  the  most  fruitful. 
It  is  true  that  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  much  inter¬ 
cession,  being  about  intimate  and  personal  matters, 
must  be  private  and  “in  secret,”  but  there  is  much 
intercession  which  is  appropriate  in  the  family.  In  the 
family  intercession  the  whole  mission  and  service  of  the 


36 


HOW  TO  CONDUCT 


Church  of  Christ  in  the  world  may  not  only  be  com¬ 
mended  to  God  but  also  laid  up  against  the  heart  of  the 
child.  Some  families  confess  the  advantage  of  using 
some  such  guidance  in  intercessory  prayer  for  the 
world-wide  work  of  the  Church  as  the  “Year  Book  of 
Prayer  for  Missions,”  issued  annually  by  the  Woman’s 
Board  of  Home  Missions  and  the  Woman’s  Board  of 
Foreign  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
U.  S.  A. 

(/)  Submission.  Our  Lord’s  example  must  be  imi¬ 
tated  in  all  our  prayers:  “My  Father,  if  it  be  possible, 
let  this  cup  pass  away  from  me:  nevertheless,  not  as  I 
will,  but  as  thou  wilt.” 

(g)  In  the  name  of  Christ.  This  is  a  distinctive 
feature  of  all  Christian  prayer  that  is  offered  “in  the 
name  of  Christ,”  or  for  Christ’s  sake.  “  In  the  name  of 
Christ”  is  more  than  a  formula  with  which  it  is  cus¬ 
tomary  to  conclude  a  prayer.  Christian  prayers  may 
well  conclude  with  more  than  a  “bare  mentioning  of  his 
name.”  The  significance  of  the  phrase  is  well  unfolded 
in  question  and  answer  number  180  of  the  Larger 
Catechism :  “What  is  it  to  pray  in  the  name  of  Christ?  ” 
“To  pray  in  the  name  of  Christ,  is,  in  obedience  to  his 
command,  and  in  confidence  on  his  promises,  to  ask 
mercy  for  his  sake :  not  by  bare  mentioning  of  his  name ; 
but  by  drawing  our  encouragement  to  pray,  and  our 
boldness,  strength,  and  hope  of  acceptance  in  prayer, 
from  Christ  and  his  mediation.”  “And  whatsoever  ye 
shall  ask  in  my  name,  that  will  I  do.” 


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